Kirstie Simson & Charlie Brittain 2026 Berlin Workshop
Schedule
Tue, 22 Sep, 2026 at 11:00 am to Sun, 27 Sep, 2026 at 06:00 pm
UTC+02:00Location
Studio2 & Media Library for Dance and Theatre | Berlin, BE
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Dancing Practices that Promote Well-being, Resilience and Healing in Challenging Times
A Movement Workshop with Charlie Brittain and Kirstie Simson
22 - 27 September 2026 (6 Days)
11:00 - 18:00
with 2 hours lunch break
Studio 2, Bethanien
Mariannenpl. 2, 10997 Berlin, Germany
Performance: 26 September 20:00
More information, please check the information PDF here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PAEXPdEw97dHSMtuvS9kF2GE36C0ih0X/view?usp=sharing
There is deep inspiration and rigour in a practice of improvisation that posits vulnerability at its heart. Developing the skills to be able to care for, engage, respect, and respond to that state of openness in oneself, others and our environment generates creative work that is powerful and transformative. Learning from a place of interconnectedness can give us the resilience and insight to face life's challenges and complexities.
In honouring our body’s innate attraction and drive towards wholeness, balance, creativity & healing, we will explore embodied intelligence and imagination utilising dancing practices that emerge from the radical softness of the heart-space.
These reflective practices support us in witnessing the transformation and joy that is realised through the challenging simplicity of experiencing our bodies in motion.
Over the course of the workshop, we will journey through shared dancing, scored movement explorations and space for group processing - affirming the poignancy of our human connectedness, and its implications for health and resilience in facing the universal and personal challenges of our lives today.
The work emerges from the grounding of care gleaned from their extensive collective experience, comprising improvisation, Contact Improvisation, contemporary dance, Alexander technique, bodywork and myofascial release, movement rehabilitation, human biomechanics, musculoskeletal health, integrative health practice, Aikido, meditation and emergency care.
We share our work through facilitated exercises, open time for play and exploration, movement scores, observations, self-reflection, deep listening, discussion, and humour. Much of the work is experienced through partnering and connection with others, balanced with solo/group time for processing and reflection.
Kirstie’s broad knowledge of improvisation as a renowned teacher and performer, and Charlie’s extensive experience as a professional dance artist, choreographer and performer brings rigourous depth to their work, which is regenerative and Life-affirming.
Together we will explore new avenues through which we can move forward to face the uncertainty in our world today.
Kirstie and Charlie’s ever-evolving collaboration is centred on their shared passion and dedication for dance and healing, which manifests through teaching, performing, and co-creating. Their work expands as it is shared internationally and in the diverse contexts of dance, healthcare and Life.
Kirstie Simson (UK):
Kirstie Simson (UK) has been a continuous explosion in the contemporary dance scene, bringing audiences into contact with the vitality of pure creation in moment after moment of virtuoso improvisation. Called “force of nature” by the New York Times, she is an award-winning performer and teacher who has immeasurably enriched and expanded the boundaries of New Dance; according to Time Out Magazine, London.
Kirstie is internationally renowned today as an excellent teacher, a captivating performer, and a leading light in the field of Dance Improvisation, with a dance practice that spans over four decades. From 2008 – 2020 Kirstie held a position as a tenured professor in the Department of Dance at the
University of Illinois.
In August 2020 Kirstie returned to her home base in Wales from where she continues to deepen the investigation of her work, sharing her findings with others around the globe. Kirstie is framing her work now, in the light of our uncertain future, as practices that can help us develop resilience in the face of challenge. She uses her own experience of facing a life-threatening health issue as a foundation for ongoing research into the wisdom and healing powers we discover through listening deeply into our embodied intelligence.
www.kirstiesimson.com
Charlie Brittain (UK):
Charlie’s passion lies in empowering others to take ownership of their practice and champion their values through dancing. He continues to perform internationally with dance companies, independent projects and in collaboration with other artists alongside his choreographic work, which looks to the processes and innate wisdom of the body as a vehicle for learning and a means to extrapolate compositional methods. He is a sought-after rehearsal director and choreographic facilitator working across a range of artistic environments and ventures as well as a passionate teacher, regularly invited to lead classes and workshops for dance companies, educational institutes and festivals worldwide.
Charlie integrates his art with his practice as a bodyworker, movement rehabilitator, biomechanics specialist, musculoskeletal health specialist and integrative health practitioner, specializing in the treatment, rehabilitation and education of dancers and movement practitioners as well as lecturing and examining on higher education programs in the U.K. and Europe. Charlie continues to practice clinically in frontline pre-hospital emergency care for U.K. emergency ambulance services; he is currently studying his MSc in Acute Medicine from the University of South Wales.
www.charliebrittain.com
Performance
dying duets | shimmering
26 September 2026, Saturday, 20:00
dying duets is the extension of a Life process, through performance, where we dare to stay with the questions, shimmering, as we embrace the vulnerability of fragility and living risk. Join us in a reflective space where moving as witnessing lays the ground for story.
Drawing on the radical softness of the heart-space, Kirstie and Charlie explore the carrying of death through life and the momentary deaths that reveal Life in its most essential essence. The one choice, within the myriad of possibilities, that is called for in every moment; the burning away, and the joy and transformation that is released.
Our work is an affirmation of the poignancy of human connectedness, and its
implications for health and resilience in facing the universal and personal challenges of our lives today.
Kirstie and Charlie’s ever-evolving collaboration is centered on their shared passion and dedication for dance and healing, which manifests through teaching, performing, and co-creating.
What people say about this performance:
‘It was wonderful to experience the subtle beauty of your work. You were both radiant. I felt a gentle warmth, tenderness and connection to self and others that will stay with me.’
----Tessa Waite
‘Fundamentally, what moved me was the intimacy and vulnerability you both inhabited, how this speaks of the larger story; the need for loving kindness, how pain opens us into feeling ourselves in the current world.
There is this proposal by Barry Lopez that feels to be in the same field of immanence you invoke in your moving...
In this trembling moment…is it still possible to face the gathering darkness and to say to the physical Earth and to all its creatures, including ourselves, fiercely and without embarrassment, I love you, and to embrace fearlessly the burning world?’ (2022)’
----Simon Whitehead
Workshop Fee
Early Bird
390 €
Before 1 June
Full Fee
450 €
After 1 June
Max 30 participants
*This is an open level workshop offering valuable information for dancers, movement practitioners and health professionals including those with little or no experience.
Registration
Please register at this link:
https://forms.gle/WAz7szjWsCSTXq8W8
Any questions, please email Yin Haolong at [email protected]
A 100 euro deposit is due to secure your place. The rest can be paid by bank transfer before 1 September.
Cancelation Policy
A 100 euro deposit is not refundable. It’s not possible to cancel after 1 September.
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Where is it happening?
Studio2 & Media Library for Dance and Theatre, Mariannenplatz 2, 10997 Berlin, Deutschland, Berlin, GermanyEvent Location & Nearby Stays:
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